Life in an Ethiopian refugee camp was not easy, Deng
Jongkuch told seventh and eighth graders during assemblies this week at Hamburg Middle
School, where he talked about his experiences as one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.
He was invited to speak to help students relate to a novel they read, “A Long
Walk to Water.”

Mr. Jongkuch was also presented with a $1,179 donation from
the school’s Cents for Sudan fund-raiser organized by teachers Jennifer Perri
and Patricia Luders. The donation will go toward Impact A Village, a non-profit
organization that helps to improve education and healthcare worldwide. Students
from the top fundraising ELA classes of Michelle Kujawa and Tressa Bogner presented
the check.

Fleeing his Bor village in 1988 during the Sudanese civil
war, Mr. Jongkuch told how he walked four to five weeks to find safety in a refugee
camp, which became his home for four years. Since there was no school building
or books, classes were held under a tree and children wrote in the sand. Food
was in short supply, so there was usually just one meal a day. He later located
to a Kenyan refugee camp for nine years, before being chosen as one of 3,800 Lost
Boys brought to the U.S. to begin a new life. Here he began discovering what he
called the “American mysteries”: water plentifully available through a faucet,
cooking by stove instead of firewood, light with the flick of a switch, a
vacuum cleaner versus cleaning with tree branches.

Not knowing the culture and with limited English language
abilities, he struggled in his first job at a retail store. Instead of
quitting, he took the store catalog home and memorized the products. After two
years, he became so proficient, he was able to train others. Later, he worked
an overnight security job and attended college during the day, eventually
earning degrees in health sciences and public health.

“So you guys here have no reason you cannot go to college,”
he said, in speaking of overcoming adversity.

He said that through all the difficult times, he was amazed
at the human spirit.

“As human beings, we adapted to the situation,” he said.

He also told students that their best asset for learning isn’t
a high-tech gadget.